Hooters Restaurant Girls

Hooters, Inc. began operations in Clearwater, Florida, founded by six Clearwater businessmen (Lynn Stewart, Gil DiGiannantonio, Ed Droste, Billy Ranieri, Ken Wimmer, Dennis Johnson), built on the site of a former rundown nightclub that had been purchased at a low price. The store actually opened on April 1, as an "April Fools Day" joke, because the original six owners believed that their prospect was going to fail. Indeed, so many businesses had folded in that particular location that the Hooters founders built a small "graveyard" at the front door for each that had come and gone before them.
In 1984, Hugh Connerty bought the rights to Hooters from the Original Hooters 6. Robert H. Brooks and a group of Atlanta investors (operators of Hooters of America, Inc.) bought out Hugh Connerty. In 2002, Brooks bought majority control and became chairman. The Clearwater-based company retained control over restaurants in the Tampa Bay Area, Chicago metropolitan area, and one in Manhattan, New York, while all other locations were under the aegis of Hooters of America, which sold franchising rights to the rest of the United States and international locations. Under Brooks's leadership, the collective Hooters brand expanded from one restaurant to more than 425 stores worldwide. Brooks died on July 15, 2006 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, of a heart attack. Brooks' will gave most of Hooters of America Inc. to his son Coby Brooks and daughter Boni Belle Brooks.
The Hooters Casino Hotel was opened February 2, 2006, off the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, US. This hotel has 696 rooms with a 35,000-square-foot (3,300 m2) casino. The hotel is owned and operated by 155 East Tropicana, LLC. It is adjacent to the Tropicana, across the street from the MGM Grand Las Vegas. At this time it is the only Hooters facility offering lodging since a Hooters Inn motel located along Interstate 4 in Lakeland, Florida was demolished in 2007.
As part of their 25th anniversary, Hooters Magazine released its list of top Hooters Girls of all time. Among the best-known were Lynne Austin (the original Hooters Girl), the late Kelly Jo Dowd (the mother of the golfer Dakoda Dowd), Bonnie-Jill Laflin, Leeann Tweeden, and Holly Madison.